Are digital content creators redefining influencer marketing?

Building their brand equity, directly monetising their audiences, launching D2C startups, or becoming angel investors–are content creators in India the new SMEs of the economy?

In February 2021, MrBeast Burger announced that it had sold one million sandwiches within just three months of its launch in the United States. It sounded like a great start for a burger conglomerate raking in the dough. But MrBeast is no conglomerate. It’s a YouTube channel run by 23-year-old Jimmy Donaldson with a little over 92 million subscribers.

I landed on MrBeast’s YouTube channel–an aging millennial ready to diss Gen Z’s obsession with silly things. But as I watched Donaldson give away thousands of dollars to people for ridiculous challenges, including a $4,56,000 real-life Squid Game challenge, I was hooked. If you look beyond his viral videos, you will see a business machine that makes Donaldson one of the richest independent content creators in the world.

Donaldson is represented by Jellysmack, which bills itself as a “global creator company.” Also on its roster are YouTube heavyweights such as Daily NAS and PewDewPie. The latter, with 111 million subscribers, is considered the biggest YouTuber in the world. In February, Jellysmack launched in India with 21 creators and plans to bring 100 creators on board through the course of the year.

Jellysmack, which raised Series C funding in the range of $50-$100 million from Softbank in May 2021, is part of the burgeoning creator economy that is growing beyond influencer marketing. The Information estimates that in 2021, Venture Capitalist firms invested $2 billion in start-ups focused on the creator economy. Flush with cash, start-ups are on an expansion spree, and India–with its young demographic, smartphone penetration, cheap mobile data plans and a readymade roster of social media stars–is a key market.

The creator’s journey

According to a study by VC firm SignalFire, the creator economy comprises around 50 million creators. The firm estimates that about two million of them are “professional”–people with a large following who manage to make content full-time.

However, every creator spends time in the digital wilderness to get to this stage–putting out content with very few views. “Standing in front of a ring light can get lonely,” says Ankita Chawla, who puts out content on Instagram to help creators and businesses grow. “It feels like you are behind. There are times when I unnecessarily push myself to work three times harder.”

Creators keep experimenting with content seeking the coveted “viral” hit. Bhuvan Bam, whose YouTube channel BB Ki Vines has 25.3 million subscribers, uploaded several videos every week for eight to nine months before his first video went viral. But the pressure after hitting virality only increased. “The stakes are high. Every year there are 4-5 people who are a one-video wonder,” shares Rohit Raj, co-founder and CEO, BB Ki Vines Productions. “If one video has gone viral, the next video has to be bang on so that people engage with it and hence stick with you.”

It is this sticky audience that attracts brands that piggyback on the creator’s popularity. In March, cloud kitchen startup Bigspoon collaborated with comedian Zakir Khan to launch a biryani brand called Mehfil Biryanis By Zakir Khan. According to a GroupM INSA report, two-thirds of Indians follow at least one “influencer.” Advertisers are pouring in nearly ₹900 crore to reach their followers. And the number is expected to have a compounded annual growth rate of 25 per cent–ballooning to ₹2,200 crore by 2025. This makes content creation a viable career–with top creators now buying new homes and adopting aspirational lifestyles.

Beyond influencer marketing

However, fame and money come with heavy expectations. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram are content-hungry machines. There is pressure on creators to deliver more of the same, or risk criticism. “Doing the same thing over and over again leads to a burnout. No one can be a creator forever. You can be a creator and do other things,” says Janice Sequeira, host of the web series Social Media Stars with Janice.

It also makes strategic sense for creators to move beyond social media platforms and diversify their revenue streams. According to Ayush Guha, head, business development and strategy, Hypp, a content strategy and talent management agency, influencer marketing–which hinges primarily on followers–is only the beginning of the creator economy. “An increase in followers should also increase the diversity of activities creators do other than day to day branded content on their social handles. We want creators to grow 4x-5x in returns by tapping into other sources of revenue and engage in brand building exercises,” he says.

This is where start-ups are stepping up. Some like Patreon, Buy Me A Coffee, Substack and Memberful allow creators to charge a subscription fee to access premium content. In December 2021, Instagram announced that it is experimenting with memberships, which will allow creators to charge a monthly fee to offer features like exclusive subscriber-only live streams, stories and badges.

But many creators The Established spoke to are wary of putting up paywalls. “Most traditional creators have built their audience by being themselves and hence being relatable. As soon as they start charging for it, you will see a dip. And for creators, [their channel] is their bread and butter. They can’t take the risk of moving into a subscription-based model in the current setting,” explains Guha.

This is where tipping comes in. Last year, YouTube rolled out its Super Thanks feature, which allows people to pay a one-time tip to the creators they love. “Audience attention can be monetised in unique ways,” says Gunjan Arya, CEO, Only Much Louder (OML). “Subscriptions are a great idea in some markets. But in India, tipping is a feature that has really worked.” Digital creators like Tanmay Bhat, Samay Raina and several others conduct live streams, and “Super Thanks,” in the form of tips, keep popping up in the live chat window.

Content to commerce

There are also creators who focus on building D2C brands–selling everything from apparel and make-up products to stationery. Vishnu Kaushal, who has over 7,00,000 followers on Instagram, launched his product line PEACH last year. “I initially launched it for my community, but when I got into it, I found out I loved the whole process. I love talking to vendors and figuring out how to improve margins,” says Kaushal.

Kaushal is far from alone. Bhuvan Bam launched his D2C brand Youthiapa. Food blogger Madhura Bachal (Madhura’s Recipes) launched her line of spice mixes. Ekta Chaudhry, who runs the YouTube channel GardenUp, has opened e-commerce operations selling gardening products through her website and on YouTube’s Merch Shelf. Moreover, the offering extends to digital products like online courses–such as those offered by productivity, finance and business content creator Ankur Warikoo.

Sensing the power of digital creators to create retail channels, The Good Glamm Group is betting big on its creator-to-commerce model. In the last two years, the beauty and personal care brand has gone on an acquisition spree–buying digital media outlets like PopXO, ScoopWhoop and MissMalini Entertainment as well as influencer-marketing platform Winkl and video-analytics start-up Vidooly. It then spun off MissMalini, Plixxo, Winkl and Vidooly into a separate entity called The Good Creator Co, infusing ₹200 crore to scale it up. “These [creator-focussed companies] were assets that we felt would really add value to the Group,” Priyanka Gill, co-founder, The Good Glamm Group, told Inc42. “Even when POPxo and MyGlamm came together, we could see the impact on sales at MyGlamm via the creator network at POPxo’s Plixxo. Thus, we began to see if other creator assets and platforms could solve two main problems of the influencer economy—technology and data-driven insights,” she says.

But it’s not just investors and large companies investing in the creator economy. Some of the larger content creators are today angel investors. Standup comedian Tanmay Bhat has a stake in companies like Qoohoo, a service focused on the creator economy, ed-tech company Growth School and fintech firms Smallcase and Wint Wealth. Bhuvan Bam and Ranveer Allahbadia (aka Beer Biceps) have invested in Hypd, a company enabling creators to set up digital stores.

Where do things go from here for creators? While there is a lot of excitement, definitive answers are hard to come by. “Digital content creation is just 10 years old in India. So rules will keep changing as new creators emerge. I mean five years ago, would you have thought of an artist like Mayur Jumani or Yashraj Mukhate?” says Rohit Raj.

“I think brands working with creators for the reach they represent is probably only the beginning of the creator economy,” says OML’s Gunjan Arya. “Creators are the SMEs of the future.”

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